Cory Doctorow: Hacking Politics

Computers permeate almost every aspect of our lives. To fully understand the world we live in, we must understand computers and the language of 1s and 0s they speak. The characters in Cory Doctorow’s novel, “Homeland”, are a group of technically able, politically-engaged teenagers who are native speakers of this language. They have the tech-savvy and know-how to do something about a system they see as corrupt, rigged, and awash in money. Although a novel, the characters represent a new political class of teenagers and twenty-somethings whose politics are not about left or right or voting booths, but a distrust of power and money. They are Occupy. They are Anonymous. Rebels with the code – and a cause.